RE: Web to AS/400 Database connectivity

> > I have a new customer who we are developing an AS/400
> application for.  He has grand plans for a web
> > site that will interact with the data on the 400.  He is not
> automatically considering serving the
> > web pages from the 400.  He has considered buying another
> AS/400 to serve the pages using WebSphere
> > Commerce Suite, but that is not definite.
> >
> > Since I am the developer for the AS/400 application, I have to
> answer questions from web companies
> > who are trying to make proposals to my customer.
> >
> > One of the questions that I can't answer so well is how will
> the web developers get data from the
> > AS/400.  Some know of the 400, others don't.  Most know it runs DB/2.
> >
> > The web developers have to be able to enter data into our
> system.  For instance, they will do all of
> > the programming to accept an order, then they will have to
> create an order and pick ticket on my
> > system.  They will have to receive an order# back from the 400.
>  They will also have to get data
> > from the 400 to show order status, etc.
> >
> > How should I tell them to connect?
>
>
> we do web development, using the asna platform.  the actual web serving
> is done using a p/c with windows iis and the as/400 is a database
> server.  asna has a product, datagate, that serves the data from the
> as/400 to the p/c.  avr (asna visual rpg) code is used on the p/c along
> with active server pages to process the web pages.
>
> asna has some more information on how the process works, you can check
> out asna's web page at http://www.asna.com
>
> nj

Although the Asna product works well, I don't like it because you have to
run
Datagate to access the as/400 database.  If the datagate subsystem is down
your
data won't be served.  It also adds another layer between the application
and DB/2.

It does make development a little easier but a properly designed server
application
could do the same work without another software product in the middle.

We serve our web pages from a set or redundant linux servers with custom CGI
programs
 accessing the as/400 for the data we need.  We chose this method because it
was the most efficient way to apply the complex databaserelationships (our
business rules).

We chose to use db contraints and triggers for database integrity which put
a great deal of the business rules right into the database itself.

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